


Trust Fall

by ActualHurry



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Era, Fire, Flashbacks, Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship, fears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 13:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15486537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualHurry/pseuds/ActualHurry
Summary: McCree takes a leap of faith.





	Trust Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Agent_24](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agent_24/gifts).



“ _McCree!_ ”

Through the smoke in his eyes and blur in his vision, McCree squinted down through the busted window at the Commander’s form way down below, lit bright by the fire. Sweat was beading on his skin faster than he could wipe it off. The communicator in his ear, miraculously still working, was no competition against the roaring of the flames creeping ever closer and the creaking of the wood crumbling under the pressure the fire’s heat.

“ _You need to get out of there, right now. That building’s going to come down with you in it._ ”

“The stairway’s blocked,” McCree said. He winced at how rough his voice sounded. For all of a second, he caught himself considering peeling off his cape and quickly decided any blisters weren’t worth the trouble. He damn well knew the answer he was going to get before the Commander even responded - not that it took Reyes particularly long - but his stomach still twisted up at the order.

“ _Then_ jump _._ ”

-

_Everybody’s afraid of something._

Lee Hustin, leader of the Deadlock Gang back when McCree had been a part of things, had always said it whenever the chance arose. As a motto, it wasn’t anything special - not specific enough to be useful, too common sense to be particularly inspiring. But it was just vague enough that to some fella dumber than the rest, it sounded like a special sort of insightful, _important_. Maybe even genius. Point was, there were a lot of dumb folk in Deadlock to fool. Jesse McCree wasn’t any fool, though.

Way he saw it, it was only the truth. There wasn’t any need to go around spouting off an obvious part of life. Some people were afraid of dying. If any of those people were running around in Deadlock now, McCree felt like he should probably recommend they quit while ahead. Other people were afraid of snakes. Some people were even afraid of McCree (admittedly, this made more sense to him than the rest).

In the end, no matter what someone’s Achilles heel was, no matter how common or uncommon, stupid or not - it paid to keep your fears to yourself. Living by that had never once bitten McCree in the ass.

Until it did, of course.

-

“ _McCree, jump!_ ”

“I’m -” McCree started, tight with irritation, and then coughed up what felt like half a lung. The air was too thin and the fire too suffocating, thick smoke choking him from the inside out. He made like he was going to climb out the window, but peering down at the ground below made his throat close up, so he stayed rooted to the spot.

“ _Jump out of that fucking building or I’ll drag your burned corpse out of it myself, agent._ ” Reyes sounded all the more agitated - and worried too, underneath that anger. McCree knew him well enough to hear it, but this wasn’t any time to be getting gooey over Reyes showing concern over a reasonably concerning situation. ‘Hot and bothered’ wasn’t supposed to be literal, and McCree was feeling both of those strong enough already.

“That’s a long fall, Commander,” he insisted, gripping the ledge of the wide-open window a little tighter. “Not all of us got super soldier knees.”

Exasperation was the last thing he expected out of Reyes, and yet - “ _I’ll catch you_.” Complete with a heavy sigh and… McCree wasn’t so sure because of the smoke clouding his eyes, but did Reyes just shake his head at him?

Did he just say he’d _catch_ him?

“That ain’t how it works -”

“ _Sure it is,_ ” said Reyes, like it was really that easy and McCree wouldn’t break at least four bones in his body no matter how he landed. And, baffled, McCree only watched as Reyes opened his arms, wide as he could. “ _Now fucking jump._ ”

Later, McCree would tell the story like this: The burning building had been coming down around him, and he’d taken a valiant dive out of the third story window into the welcoming, heroic arms of one Commander Gabriel Reyes. He’d give a half-cocked grin as he described the sweet relief of not being smothered by fire and smoke and the remaining floors of the rigged drug smuggler’s mansion, and how Reyes had just rolled his eyes (and the fact that he’d seemed to jostle McCree a little closer to his body upon being caught would be a secret just for them).

The actual reality was that the other Blackwatch agents had borrowed the firefighters’ life net and had been holding it right below the window for McCree to jump into, and he had, and things had been _fine_. He definitely had not almost emptied his stomach directly onto the ground after the fact, and absolutely didn’t black out with Reyes looking down at him with some unreadable expression on his face that McCree was _sure_ was disappointment.

-

“You’re scared of heights,” said Reyes, joining him outside the firing range later that week.

McCree’s lungs were no worse for wear from being stuck in the burning building so long, and there was nothing but superficial damage elsewhere. As for why he’d been the last one out, well - someone had to make sure the kingpin wasn’t going anywhere. A good captain was supposed to go down with the ship after all. He just hadn’t expected the building to give the way it had, and so _fast_. The way the guy had smiled all slimy at him before he put two bullets in his knees made sense in hindsight.

When McCree made no effort to reply, Reyes just leaned against the wall next to him. “Well. What was it then, if not the height?”

“It -” McCree stalled out and then shrugged. “Didn’t seem important at the time.”

“No?” Reyes scoffed. “We rappel down shit all the time. I’ve had you cliff dive into the ocean. Hell, you’ve parachuted into an active combat zone, McCree. What was so different about it?”

“The wall of fire ‘n brimstone behind me?” McCree offered, frustrated. He turned his head away. His jaw worked itself taut and loose and back again. “I don’t _like_ heights. Don’t mean I can’t deal with ‘em. Doesn’t matter, won’t happen again.”

He could feel Reyes’ heavy stare on him, never leaving and not once wavering. At this point, McCree would’ve preferred if he’d just hit the ground and died during the mission after all. He locked up once; so what? He didn’t have the energy to tell Reyes that all the other times really _had_ been different - that rappelling still had him connected to something solid, that cliff diving ended in water with broken up surface tension so it wasn’t like hitting solid earth, that parachuting at least slowed the landing enough for him to catch his breath.

“I know it won’t,” finally came an answer. It unwound a little of the knot forming in McCree’s gut. He listened as Reyes pushed off from the wall but didn’t dare look, preferring instead to count the blades of grass next to his boots. Before Reyes walked away entirely, McCree barely caught the words - “I appreciate you trusting me.”

_That_ made McCree snap a look his way. “You were right,” he said, like it was blatantly obvious. “What else was I gonna do? Burn to a crisp? No, thanks.”

Reyes snorted. “You nearly did. But you listened to me instead of that fear. So. Good job.”

Standing this distance away, McCree could soak in the entirety of him. Strong muscle that wasn’t quite hidden beneath the loose, dark hoodie. Reyes’ hands were settled in the front pockets of it, the black fabric worn to an off-gray. McCree would think he was being casual if not for the alert hold to his wide shoulders, no slouch to be found there. Suddenly his throat felt near as dry as it had when he’d been three stories up and close to wheezing.

“Ain’t the first time,” he managed.

“Won’t be the last, either,” Reyes assured him with a funny, sideways kind of smile, like he wasn’t happy about it, but he couldn’t afford to be put off by it.

McCree watched him go with a halfhearted salute, glancing away after he was sure Reyes had turned the corner to go inside the base again. He shook off the pensive expression on his own face, bit the inside of his cheek and then lit a smoke, because _fuck_.

Heights were nothing compared to how fucking scared he was knowing what lengths he’d go to for that man.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been lucky enough to start swapping McReyes chats with a certain [@Agent_24](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agent_24/pseuds/Agent_24), and we've come up with some good ideas...
> 
> Thank you for reading.


End file.
